Friday, October 25, 2013

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 27: Inspired by Art

Grrr! I'm so sorry I've completely failed at posting with regularity - when I started this blog I was working part time and had a lot of flexibility with my schedule and never had issues posting when I wanted to. My new job (I can't believe I've been there over 3 months!) is full time and incredibly demanding and I'm often at work for 11 hours at a time. This results in a VERY burnt out Lindsey by the time I get home. Often, despite wanting to be creative, I can't find it in me to get paint on nail and begin the process. Such was the case this week and hence why I'm posting this 2 days late ;) 

Inspired by Art was very intimidating for me. It's hard to look at someone's master piece(s) and say "Yeah, I can recreate that on a micro-scale and it's going to look just as good as that." While it's very loved style, impressionism is far and above my favorite type of art. I love the perceived randomness of the strokes that somehow work so flawlessly together and love the texture that is created when oils are used. There is just so much to love about it. 

I went back and forth between a ton of artists and struggled with whether I should do pieces that have been done before in nail art or if I should forge my own way with something that hadn't been done yet. I actually ended up complaining to the art expert herself, Meghan and asking for suggestions and guidance. In the end, I settled on Monet's Regatta at Argenteuil. I cheated a bit in that I only did 4 fingers, but I wanted to make a cohesive look across the even canvas of my fingers.

I think I used 19 polishes to create this look and blended those to create even more colors. It probably doesn't seem like I used that many, but I did a lot of layering to try and recreate the effect you see in the painting. I tried to use short strokes in an attempt to create some semblance of texture, but I don't know how successful it was. 
I ended up using a matte top coat over these because a shiny top coat didn't seem to go with the painting, but here it is prior to the top coat, with the top coat, and with the matte top coat.  I think I may like it best without any top coat but oh well! Which do you like best? 
Do you have a favorite style of art? I wish I had been presented the opportunity to take an art history class during school. I would love to be able to speak more profoundly on different styles and actually have an articulated opinion on art! 
Happy Polishing :)